Jon
Kennedy, Nanty Glo Home Page webmaster and owner, is a former teen and campus
minister. He began his journalism career as teen columnist for the Nanty Glo Journal
and its sister weekly newspapers from 1957 to '62 and became the Journal's
third editor in 1962 at age 20. He has edited other newspapers and magazines,
and more recently, webzines, ever since. His articles have appeared in the Los
Angeles Times, Detroit Free Press, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Christianity
Today, and many other publications. His Jonals appear here on Mondays, Wednesdays,
and Fridays.

My
latest etoy

In Monday's Jonal I began to tell you
about my latest etoy but got sidetracked in writing the setup. I've had my antennae
out for a digital camera or, as we Silicon Valleyans say, a digicam, for several
years. Though I spent the most I've ever spent in my life for any small possession
that I can't drive, eat, or type ona $1000 digital camcorderfive years
ago on the promise that I could use it for still photos as well (there are some
samples of this use of it in this
Home Page feature) when my son Mike bought his Canon digital still camera
which can also make short video clips and took it along on our trip to England
and Ireland in 2001, I packed up the camcorder to almost never use again. You
can compare some of his still photos, and if you have a high-speed Internet service,
some of the video, here.

Mike
also accompanied me on my next two vacation trips, back to England, Ireland, and
Paris the next summer, and to New York City and Pennsyvania last summer, so I
wasn't desperate enough to spring for my own digicam. But the most repeated theme
in my travel writing and talks has been: For me, the hallmark of a successful
trip or tour is the quality of the photos you get. Without good trip pix, you
may as well have stayed home. (Of course I know there are sure to be people out
there who'll say "there's nothing like spending your whole trip trying to
get good pictures to spoil the whole experience," but if you're of that mind
you're welcome to send your retort for a future postcard.)

This
summer my vacation plans had to be truncated because I began a new job in April
and wouldn't have enough vacation days accrued for a trip abroad this year. So
when my brother Bob told me in June that he was planning to attend the Vintondale
homecoming this Saturday and Sunday I offered to tag along, taking two of my sparse
vacation days before the holiday weekend and a third the day after Labor Day.
But this forced the moment of truth. Without Mike along, would I recharge the
ole camcorder or finally dig down for that long wanted digital still camera? And
if so, which of the scores of models ranging from $50 to $5000 in price would
I choose?

Of course I considered Mike's Canon, but for what
he paid three years ago you can now get a very high-end model. I also got Judy
Rose's input, as she has been taking most of the photos added to the Home Page
for the past two years on her digital camera, and they are generally of excellent
quality. And at a graduation party for son Kevin's fiance in June, I saw a digicam
that I immediately fell in love with (metaphorically, of course). It was smaller
than a pack of cigarettes and, although I didn't know its owners well enough to
ask to get my hands on it, Kevin told me later that it was a 3.5-megapixel camera,
which should indicate that it would put out the same quality of photos as Mike's
Canon.

I hate to shop, but forced myself to browse the camera
department at Fry's Electronics several times in the interim, as my Vintondale
Homecoming trip loomed nearer, and also scanned the showcases in Target. Each
time, it seemed the cameras were more feature-packed for prices lower than the
time before.

Finally, last weekend I return to Fry's where,
unlike Target, you can actually handle and even snap sample shots on the cameras
on display. And this time, within five minutes I saw two models that seemed as
desirable as the one at the graduation party, the same pocket size, a Casio (a
brand I've had enough experience with to trust), and a Pentax, a brand well enough
known to have confidence in. They seemed identical in most features, identical
in price$349and differing only in some of the extras. One had some
built-in memory, the other came with a memory card that was considerably larger
than the other's built-in memory. The Casio had a 1.5-inch monitor; the Pentax's
a 2-inch monitor. After talking to a sales rep, I put down some plastic for the
Pentax.

Thus far, it seems incredible. With 4 megapixels,
it is capable of taking higher-resolution shots than Mike's Canon (a four-megapixel
photo using all of its resolution and "printed" for optimal on-screen
viewing, is more than four times larger than a 17-inch computer screen, so it's
much more resolution than I need, especially as I have virtually no interest in
actually printing my pictures on paper).

Bob and I are set
to fly to Pittsburgh on Thursday, so this will be my last Jonal before departure,
and I'm not sure if I'll be sending anything while traveling; am not able to promise.
But if I do, other than a possible (but not guaranteed, either) Judy Rose Saturday
feature and a Frank Charney Sunday one, mine will probably be nothing but sample
pictures of familiar places captured on my new etoy.

The
best thing is that, whereas I'd been almost dreading the trip before I found and
bought my toy, now I can't wait!

Webmaster
Jon Kennedy

Foreign approach

People
in other countries sometimes go out of their way to communicate with their English-speaking
tourists. Here is a collection of signs seen around the world.

Hotel,
Japan: YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID.

In
the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery: YOU ARE
WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS,
AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY.

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